Ahoy mateys and welcome to the Game Buoy podcast, your twice monthly port of call for gaming news and views that may not be on your radar, but definitely should be! On this episode, record Saturday, January 12, 2013, Captain Spike and his first mate, Slagkick, take a look at the changing role of challenge in games.

With some 2012 Game of the Year contenders literally having no fail conditions, Captain Spike and Slagkick take a look at the changing role of challenge in games, looking at gaming then and now to explore trends, evolution, and differences in game design and gameplay in terms of difficulty and challenge. The concept of the “Nintendo hard” meme is explored, as well as the proper time and place for a “lives mechanic” and how game saves and checkpoints have influenced the role of challenge, as well. Captain Spike and Slagkick also explore cultural differences in challenge by examining five games where difficulty level varied between Japanese and Western release: Black Tiger, Battletoads, Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, Devil May Cry 3, and Streets of Rage 3. If you were expecting the Japanese versions to all be more difficult, you may be surprised!

When Hideki Kamiya tweeted about his thoughts regarding PC gaming, Kotaku decided to write an article about it. Although the article was a mostly valid look at differing views of PC gaming, the title – “The Guy Who Made Bayonetta is Clueless About Valve and PC Gaming” – evoked a colorful response from Kamiya himself. This wonderful blog post on Forbes points out exactly the type of problem that Game Buoy has been trying to point out since day one: when a site relies on inflammatory, sensationalist headlines, it becomes clear that their focus is more on page views and site traffic rather than good reporting. Not only that, but a badly written headline can totally diminish what a decent article is trying to say. When a blog post on a business journalism website has to call out one of the most-visited gaming blogs on the web, that makes a pretty strong case for the need for gaming journalists to do a better job at being our eyes and ears to the industry.